YOUNG BOY HOLDS HAND OF BLIND HERMIT BEGGAR ON BRIDGE ~ 1843 Art Print Engraving

Description: THE BLIND HERMIT Artist: I. Hicks ____________ Engraver: W. French Note: the title in the table above is printed below the engraving CLICK HERE TO SEE MORE 19th CENTURY ANTIQUE PRINTS LIKE THIS ONE!! PRINT DATE: This antique print was printed in 1843; it is not a modern reproduction in any way. PRINT SIZE: Overall print size is 7 1/2 inches by 10 1/2 inches including white borders, actual scene is 4 5/8 inches by 6 3/4 inches. PRINT CONDITION: Condition is excellent. Bright and clean. Blank on reverse. Paper is quality woven rag stock paper. SHIPPING: Buyer to pay shipping, domestic orders receives priority mail, international orders receive regular air mail unless otherwise asked for. We take a variety of payment options, more payment details will be in our email after auction close. We pack properly to protect your item! FROM THE ORIGINAL DESCRIPTION: Whence arises the great charm of the juxta-position of age and childhood, and its peculiar adaptation for pictorial representation ? Doubtless in the union of sympathy and contrast, converging, as it were, from opposite extremes ; the opening bud of life gradually expanding into blossom, but still merely half unclosed, placed beside the flower, which, in the full glare of noon, expanded, but now gradually contracts and closes as the declining rays of the luminary disappear, which invested it with vital warmth and beauty. Considered merely in a technical point of view, and leaving the moral influences out of the question, the ruddy and healthy form of childhood, to whom existence itself is rapture, the fair freshness and bloom ing innocence of youth, its harmless mirth and guiltless trustfulness stand out in bright relief against the sober seriousness of manhood, the gravity and growing infirmity of advancing age, with its darker tints and harder features. It is indiffe rent to the beauty of the contrast, considering the subject abstractedly as a question of art, whether the child be a youth or a maiden ; childhood of either sex, when naturally represented, that is, with that degree of idealisation through which nature is admitted within the region of art, is always interesting and attractive. Who that hath gazed upon the loving faceof childhood, with its large expressive eyes, which seem to look so wistfully into the mysteries of the unexplored world, but has felt, and acknowledged its wonderful and irresistible charm. For our parts, we can easily believe what most of us will recollect as related in the tales which amused our earlier years, that the unconscious smile of the infant has often arrested the blade of the murderous assassin, reeking with its parent's blood. Childhood is the instinctive poetry of life, before the understanding sharpens, but hardens before the indefinite feelings of the mind deepen into the darker sublimity of passion, it, therefore, interests all alike ; it is the only stage of humanity, which, in all times, and in all ages, in all nations, be their standard of civilization high or low, claims universal favour and love. The budding graces of boyhood, with its incipient germ of strength, the soft beauty of girlhood are alike fitted to the painter's art, for childhood itself is eminently picturesque. It is not so with age. Here the painter must walk more warily, the broad highway of life has expanded, and on its path lie weeds and flowers intermingled ; not every object that exists in nature is a fit subject for art. Here the difference of sex is material ; we reverence old age, we fear almost to be taxed with rudeness and arrogance when we assert that here man alone is a legitimate object. Of those who may be of a different opinion, we would simply ask, did they ever behold a pleasing picture, in which (family feeling of course excluded) the interest centered exclusively in a grandmother and grandchild. You smile, gentle reader ; if so, you have decided in our favour. Whence comes it, that a representation, on which we have all looked with pleasure in real life, should be so little suited to pictorial representation, that the artist, as it were, instinctively avoids it. Its want or adaptation probably arises from the circumstance that the scene is but a weak repetition of what is woman's glory and her boast, while yet her beauty beams bright, and her husband has not ceased to be her lover. Maternal tenderness forms one of the noblest subjects of art, and numberless instances will doubtless rise to the minds of our readers, in which the greatest masters have done homage to this exquisite feature in the female character : we forbear from reverence to quote the most touching and sublime exhibition which has become a type in religious art. But with maternal tenderness, artistic fitness has reached its culmination, art pays no respect to genealogy, nay it is so exclusive that the father must be contented to play a subordinate part. And why ? Because the development of the affections is the proper sphere of woman, and the gentle goodness of childhood reflects with radiant grace upon the mother. The father doubtless rejoices in the expanding beauty and virtue of his child, but as a recreation, it is not his chief occupation ; the grand problem of his life, to watch over it with daily and hourly care. Man's destiny calls him to other duties. But in age the pictures are reversed. The blooming girl has become a lovely mother, her mother resigns to her her place; it is true, she lives again in her descendants, remains the loved and honoured matron, but her sphere of active occupation is gone, she is an accessory where she was a principal, the intensity of her affection shines more mildly, and is therefore less picturesque. Man, as well as woman, must bow before the all-consuming force of time, his hair turns grey, his limbs are feeble, the vigour of his mind gradually fades from the bold and elastic spirit, which gave him strength to struggle with the world ; a youthful generation rises around him, to which he too must yield. But, as he sinks beneath the common lot of all, he presents more points of interest. The pride and insolence of health, the hard struggles of mid-day life may have their poetry, but it is the poetry of passion, which belongs to a different sphere ; the occupation of the great mass of men in pursuit of wealth, honour, and rank, is decidedly unpoetical, or at least unfavourable to that mild display of art to which alone our remarks refer. As man's strength decays, he seeks relief from the turbulence of life, in the quiet nook of household existence, in which kind nature has reserved especial joys to cheer the evening of his days ; as age advances the smiling urchin that climbs his knee becomes more and more dear to him ; the strong man assumes a tinge of womanly tenderness, which sits not ungracefully upon him ; the intercourse is picturesque. But " if age, at play with infancy" is always interesting, this interest is greatly enhanced when stern fate reverses the parts, when misfortune has reduced the man to the weakness, which moves our compassion without exciting our contempt, and has endowed the child with strength to repair the ills of life. Such is the scene in the picture before us ; the good hermit, bound by his vows to forego the charms of conjugal and filial love, has devoted his powers to the service of Him who pro claimed peace upon earth and good will unto men. Bereaved of light he no longer enjoys the cheering splendour of the sun, but on the path of charity, the youthful stranger to his home, but not to his affection, for he has listened from infancy to his mild doctrines, guides his aged friend. Verily he shall reap his reward, for mercy and kindness have a double blessing, and strengthen by exercise those good qualities that flow from their source. Please note: the terms used in our auctions for engraving, etching, lithograph, plate, photogravure etc. are ALL prints on paper, and NOT blocks of steel or wood or any other material. “ENGRAVINGS”, the term commonly used for these paper prints, were the most common method in the 1700s and 1800s for illustrating old books, and these paper prints or “engravings” were created by the intaglio process of etching the negative of the image into a block of steel, copper, wood etc, and then when inked and pressed onto paper, a print image was created. These prints or engravings were usually inserted into books, although many were also printed and issued as loose stand alone lithographs. They often had a tissue guard or onion skin frontis to protect them from transferring their ink to the opposite page and were usually on much thicker quality woven rag stock paper than the regular prints. So this auction is for an antique paper print(s), probably from an old book, of very high quality and usually on very thick rag stock paper. A RARE FIND! AND GREAT DECORATION FOR YOUR OFFICE OR HOME WALL.

Price: 10.39 USD

Location: New Providence, New Jersey

End Time: 2024-12-22T21:07:08.000Z

Shipping Cost: 7.95 USD